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Get more from your shiny box of joy: Taking Apple TVs to the next levelFri, 31 Jul 2015 00:17:15 +0000en-UShourly1http://wordpress.org/?v=4.1.6AirBrowser – The best AirPlay browser for Apple TV gets even beter (review)http://www.appletvhacks.net/2015/05/22/airbrowser-ios-app-best-airplay-browser-for-apple-tv-review/
http://www.appletvhacks.net/2015/05/22/airbrowser-ios-app-best-airplay-browser-for-apple-tv-review/#commentsFri, 22 May 2015 17:42:40 +0000http://www.appletvhacks.net/?p=9049Visit What's on iPhone for the best iPad and iPhone app reviews!Do you want to feel like a wizard? Check the Kymera wand in Amazon: You can control your Apple TV waving a wand!
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Don’t you love it when best things get even better? Well, our favourite AirPlay browser for Apple TV – AirBrowser, just got a major update and we’re loving it.

You might remember that we did a comprehensive review of AirBrowser last year, when we were blown away by its ease to get connected, intuitive interface and tutorials, lag-free surfing, Mac-like gestures, multi-tab support and custom features.

We were surprised at how satisfactory the browsing on the 50-inch HDTV was and concluded it as below:

I have used a couple of other AirPlay browsers as well as some normal iOS browsers over AirPlay. But, unlike others, AirBrowser seems to concentrate on just this one thing, to the point that there is no standalone browsing. And such a focus surely shows through in its execution, as AirBrowser is noticeably faster, powerful and more intuitive now, than what I saw back in July.

In short, AirBrowser is the most premium experience I’ve ever had with any AirPlay browsers.

In this review, I’ll be focusing on the new additions to AirBrowser, namely the AdBlock and YouTube optimizations.

Ad-blocker on AirBrowser

Anybody who has used an ad-blocker addon on their Mac or PC would know how pleasant the whole experience becomes. Websites load much faster, you have less distractions, browsing consumes less data and the content display is much neater.

If you are coming from such a surfing scenario, AirBrowser will feel right at home from now on. Tap on the gear icon in the left bottom corner and toggle AdBlock on.

YouTube experience with AirBrowser

Similarly, below you can see YouTube loaded on Safari over AirPlay mirroring to Apple TV, versus the AirBrowser version. It is obvious why one might want to choose the latter.

Besides, while playing YouTube videos, a navigation bar and media buttons show up on your iOS screen, which just simplifies the whole YouTube experience. You can seek, play, pause and scrub, even while playing videos fullscreen, without messing around with the cursor.

The verdict

After checking out this update, we have no choice but to stand our ground. We previously throned AirBrowser as the best AirPlay browser in the App Store and now, it’s just grown better.

An app backed by an active developer team who pushes out frequent improvements, and delivers extremely well on what it promises, is surely worth recommending. So if you are searching for a browser for your Apple TV, don’t look any further.

iOS users have long been using AirPlay Mirroring to broadcast their photos, songs, movies and even dual screen games to the HDTV via Apple TV. But now, a new app called AirBrowser claims to bring web browsing to your 50 incher, which can be royally enjoyed from the couch using your iPhone or iPad. Though we have seen AirWeb, a similar browser, before, AirBrowser pushes the experience still further.

AirBrowser promises to use the native resolution of your television to stream websites, so that the pages are always shown in full screen – and that means, no black pillars of plain mirroring on the sides.

Another decent feature is that it automatically loads the desktop version of the site, instead of us requesting it every time, like on Chrome.

Once the site shows up on the television, your iPhone or iPad effectively turns into a control pad, where you can pan to move the cursor and use gestures to navigate the page. In addition to the routine omnibar and sharing options, multiple tabs, history and bookmarks can also be accessed from here.

During our hands-on session, the visuals were crisp and the controls executed exactly as advertised by the developers.

However, many including me, are still not much into the habit of surfing on our HDTVs, other than for satisfying a few minutes of curiosity. But if you do like idea or your work requires you to show off websites on televisions or projectors, AirBrowser seems to be a good option to look into.

Thanks to the latest courtroom war between Apple and Samsung, a lot of private mails and documents shared between Steve Jobs and his top employees has be made public. iPhone for normal people, Samsung’s marketing strategy, and a Holy war with Google are some of the most discussed ones. But what is significant for us Apple TV lovers is this excerpt from a mail Jobs sent in 2010 regarding the Apple TV 2.

The first two clauses are purely official and sales-related while the rest of’em sheds bright light on what Jobs wanted for Apple TV in the coming years and maybe even forms a part of what he meant when he said he’d “finally cracked the code” for the perfect television.

Now to my favorite and the most mysterious part of the mail, the last word – the magic wand. Though we have no official confirmation on what that is, we can read it closely with some of the latest patents (pic above) registered by Apple, its acquisition of motion-detection firm PrimeSense and listen to what our gut says. The said magic wand is probably a Microsoft Kinect-like device which will enable controlling of Apple TV with a stick-remote, via simple gestures and clicks.

It pairs with your existing infrared remotes and learns the patterns for various functions, which in turn can be converted into gestures. In short, you have a magic wand which you can swish in front of your Apple TV and control it. Looking somewhat like the Elder Wand from Harry Potter, this is literally what we can make of Job’s reference. In case you’re curious, you can get the magic wand for your Apple TV here.

Apple TV sure has alot of apps/channels but unfortunately a web-browser isn’t one of them. And with good reason too. Ever tried to use the browsers in so called Smart-TVs? Well I have and can assure that using the remote as a pointer for surfing is annoying and is “injurious” to your forearm. Well, now thanks to AirWeb, anyone having an AirPlay Mirroring-enabled iOS device will be able to browse smoothly on their 40-incher.

Simply put, AirWeb is an AirPlay compatible browser for your iPad and iPhone. Tap on the TV icon and your tabs just pop up on the big screen. The unique stuff actually comes after that. The screen on the iDevice gets turned into a multi-touch enabled trackpad. Pan to move the cursor, tap to click, double tap to zoom, pull from edges to go back or forward and two finger slide to scroll.

However this app is not for everyone, as it is available only to iDevices that support AirPlay Mirroring, and that would be the iPhone 4S and above, iPad 2 and above, iPad Mini both generations and the iPod touch 5th gen. iPhone 4 is also said to support the app provided a wired TV-out is taken from the phone (haven’t tested it yet). And on the other side of the connection, Apple TV 2 and above are supported.

The app is perfect for showcasing your website or sharing your Picasa albums or just for the fun to browse on that king screen. AirWeb is normally a 2 dollar app but is currently available at a New Year offer price of 99 cents. If you’ve been looking for something like this, now seems to be the best time.

AirParrot does one simply thing – it streams your Mac’s display to your Apple TV 2 over AirPlay, in real time. Although the app is still in its early stages, it already does its job pretty well. Recently updated to version 1.2, AirParrot now features audio mirroring and external monitor support. It requires Mac OS X 10.6 or 10.7 and a second-generation Apple TV running firmware 4.4., no hacking/jailbreaking needed.

We are giving away 5 free licenses for AirParrot. So if you don’t want to wait until Mountain Lion with AirPlay Mirroring is released (this summer), join us on Facebook, Twitter or Google+ to have a chance to enjoy AirPlay mirroring right now. Here are the details on how to participate in the giveaway:

]]>http://www.appletvhacks.net/2012/03/02/giveaway-win-a-free-copy-of-airparrot-for-apple-tv-2/feed/48AirPlay Mirror your Mac’s screen to Apple TV with AirParrot (Update: AirParrot 1.1 with audio mirroring is out)http://www.appletvhacks.net/2012/02/23/airplay-mirror-your-macs-screen-to-apple-tv-with-airparrot/
http://www.appletvhacks.net/2012/02/23/airplay-mirror-your-macs-screen-to-apple-tv-with-airparrot/#commentsThu, 23 Feb 2012 16:15:27 +0000http://www.appletvhacks.net/?p=1804Visit What's on iPhone for the best iPad and iPhone app reviews!Do you want to feel like a wizard? Check the Kymera wand in Amazon: You can control your Apple TV waving a wand!
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Just one day before Apple announced it will bring AirPlay Mirroring to Mountain Lion this summer, AirParrot, an app that does exactly the same thing ML will do – mirrors your Mac’s screen to your HDTV connected to the Apple TV 2 – has been released. So if you don’t want to wait six months until the new Apple’s OS is released or you don’t own a Mac with a second-generation Intel Core (it seems that AirPlay Mirroring in ML only works on the Macs with second-generation Intel Core, while AirParrot works fine on older macs), you can give AirParrot a try just now. And AirParrot’s developers promise they will be offering “features that Mountain Lion doesn’t currently have or advertise as coming.”

AirParrot does one simply thing – streams your computer’s display (the app works by encoding your display’s image as H.264 video) to your Apple TV 2 over AirPlay, in real time. And it does it pretty well: airplaying my Mac’s screen to Apple TV while surfing in Chrome, playing movies and watching photo slideshows worked quite seamlessly during my tests. Mirroring stopped only once, when I tried to play a video in QuickTime on full screen. However, on second attempt, it worked just as it should.

For now, you can’t AirPlay audio but the developers admit they are “dying” to add this in the next update. They will be also adding support for second monitor and higher video quality support in a future update.

UPDATE: AirParrot 1.1 has just been released with audio mirroring, external monitor support, password support and some performance enhancements. AirParrot 1.1 also supports trial versions.

AirParrot is available from here and costs $9.99 for a single license or $29.99 for 5 licenses. You don’t need any hacking; AirParrot requires Mac OS X 10.6 or 10.7 and a second-generation Apple TV running firmware 4.4.